It is well known that an integrated television receive-only satellite broadcast receiver/descrambler (IRD) is capable of receiving a variety of television program events which are broadcast by a service provider. And that operators often desire to record such program events at the present time for viewing at a later time by interconnecting a video cassette recorder (VCR) to the IRD. Furthermore, it is often desirable for the operator, who is typically a consumer in the home, to preprogram the VCR at the present time to record a program event at a future time so that the program event may be played back and viewed at a point in time still further in the future. To accomplish this recording function, it is necessary for the operator to utilize a timer function and preprogram the VCR to activate its record function at a specific time in the future when the desired program event is to be aired. Likewise, a timer function in the IRD must be employed to preprogram the reception for the desired program event. Then, with the proper cabling interconnecting the output of the IRD to the input of the VCR, the desired program event will be recorded for viewing at a later time. Many IRDs employ a timer function to allow the preprogrammed reception of program events. Such timer functions control various functions of the IRD. The functions controlled by such timers often include; the primary power to the IRD, the direction in which the antenna is pointed, and the radio frequency channel of operation.
In a different aspect of the use of IRD satellite broadcast receivers, it is well known that monetary service fees are charged to operators for the privilege of receiving certain programs. It is well known that these fees are assessed on a recurring basis, frequently at monthly or quarterly intervals.
In order to prevent unauthorized reception of transmitted program events, modern satellite broadcast systems scramble some of the transmitted signals for which an access fee is to be charged. Each IRD which has the capability to descramble the scrambled broadcast signal must have a descrambling device in order to do so. There has been an evolution of descrambling device technology used in the market. This descrambling technology is well known to those skilled in the art. Today, the descrambling devices popularly in use comprise a proprietary electronic circuit board inserted into the IRD. The descrambling device employs software to implement a complex and secure descrambling algorithm. The descrambling devices also provide other functions which may include communications with the service provider, interface to the receiving circuitry in the IRD, generation of operator menus on the TV screen, and storage of usage history and other data. IRD manufacturers do not develop or manufacture descrambling devices, but rather, IRD manufacturers purchase these devices from a third party and incorporate them into the IRD's that they manufacture. The principal descrambling devices in use today are the VideoCipher II, VideoCipher II Plus, VideoCipher II Plus MOM, and VideoCipher RS which are manufactured or licensed by General Instruments Corporation. These devices are often simply identified as VCII modules.
The VCII descrambling modules are proprietary in their design. Manufacturers are provided with mechanical, electrical, and protocol interface specifications that enable them to incorporate the VCII descrambling modules into the IRDs that they manufacture. The full interface specification is available from General Instruments Corporation, VideoCipher Division, 6262 Lusk Boulevard, San Diego, Calif. 92121-2743. The electrical interface to the descrambler is interfaced with a modified microprocessor bus in the IRD thus providing communications between the IRD and descrambler. The protocol specification includes a set of commands that allow the IRD to send instructions to the descrambler and for the IRD to receive responses from the descrambler. The commands sent to the descrambler by the IRD are interpreted from keystrokes entered by the operator. These commands include the following keystrokes:
______________________________________ [VIEW] Selects viewing mode [NEXT] Selects next program [SETUP] Selects SET-UP menu [TEXT] Provides text for function [MSG] Displays message [0]-[9] Enters digits [ENTER] Performs selection [CNCL] Cancels selection [(left arrow)] Data input per function [(right arrow)] Data input per function [HELP] Requests help information ______________________________________
These commands are used to control the function of the descrambler and to send enabling, initializing and activating commands to the descrambler to control the descrambling function.
Responses are generated within the descrambler and communicated to the IRD. Some responses are composed of alpha-numeric characters which are displayed on the TV. Others are communicated to the IRD microprocessor via the microprocessor bus. Some of the responses include:
______________________________________ "QUERY" Request for receiver state "NUMMODE" Allows activation of descrambler "CHANMODE" Descrambler is active ______________________________________
Each of these commands is interpreted by the IRD to determine the state of the descrambler and other functions. Therefore, activation of the descrambler involves the input of information, via keystroke entry to the descrambler, and receiving the appropriate response from the input.
Considering now the monetary service fee which is charged for the reception and descrambling of scrambled satellite broadcast program events, service providers activate the descrambling device on an operator's IRD for a periodic service fee. The IRD is thus activated to descramble scrambled program events for the duration of the period. There is no limit placed on the number of program events that may be viewed by the operator during the service period. However, service providers have a need and a desire to charge a monetary service fee on a per event basis for singular and one-time program events.
In recent years an alternative method of assessing service fees to operators has become popular. In this alternative method, the operator is assessed a service fee on a demand basis for each particular program event viewed. This method of billing is commonly called pay-per-view (PPV) or instant-pay-per-view (IPPV). The operator may select a desired program event from a program listing and adjust his IRD to receive the program event at a time just prior to or just after the time the desired program event begins. The adjustments required to the IRD include pointing the receiving antenna toward the satellite broadcasting the signal and tuning to the desired channel from the plurality of channels broadcast. Having done this, the operator must initialize and activate the PPV function so as to acknowledge the PPV monetary fee and accept the program event. The initialization and activation procedures are accomplished by manually entering keystroke commands as prompted by the descrambler on the TV screen and in accordance with the particular service provider. Often, this initialization and activation procedure includes the entering of a security password. Such password provides security to the operator in preventing unauthorized purchases of PPV programming.
There are several PPV service providers currently broadcasting PPV program events. Among these are Action Pay-Per-View, Cable Video Store (CVS), Touchstone Video Network (TVN), Request TV, and others. Each of these service providers may have a somewhat different PPV initialization and activation procedure. Furthermore, the specific activation procedure may be different depending on the access period. The access period is defined by the relationship between the time the initialization and activation procedure is executed and the time the program event begins airing.
The access periods falls into six categories. Access period one occurs long before the desired program event begins to air. During period one, the access to the program event can be denied because the program will not begin within a reasonable time period. The duration of the reasonable time period varies between service providers. It is also likely that another program event is airing during access period one, further explaining why descrambler access is denied during access period one.
Access period two occurs just prior to the beginning of a program event and follows the end of access period one. During period two, descrambler access can be gained, however additional keystroke entry is usually required to inform the descrambler that the subsequent program event is desired, as opposed to the current program event. Access period two begins a reasonable time period prior to the beginning of the program event. The duration of this period varies between service providers. During access period two, the previous program event may or may not be concluding.
Access period three also occurs just prior to the beginning of the desired program event. It differs from access period two in that the service provider is airing an advertisement for the subsequent or other future program events. Sometimes, an additional keystroke is required to exit the period three mode prior to activating the descrambler. The presence or absence of access period three depends on the service provider.
Access period four begins at the beginning of the desired program event and is defined as a short period of time when the service provider does not scramble the broadcast signal, but rather, allows IRDs to receive the broadcast without the need to descramble the signal. This is possibly done to encourage operators to decide to purchase the balance of time for the program event. During this period, the descrambler activation may be executed. The required keystroke commands may vary between service providers during access period four.
Access period five is defined as a period of time which begins after the desired program event has begun. During this period, the service provider is scrambling the signal and the operator may activate the descrambler to descramble the signal. The duration of this period varies widely between service providers. Some service providers allow activation of the descrambler up to the end of a program event's broadcast.
Access period six is a period of time which begins after the desired program event has begun and during which the service provider will not allow the activation of the descrambler by the operator. The purpose of this period is to prevent the purchase of PPV programs when there is insufficient program time remaining.
For each of the above cited periods and depending on which service provider is broadcasting the program event, a somewhat different keystroke entry sequence may be required to activate the descrambler in order to receive a program event. The descrambler provides a menu driven user interface that guides the user through the activation procedure. As was noted, descrambler activation is not possible during certain access periods. It may be, for example, necessary for the operator to wait until access period one has expired before executing the activation procedure.
The initialization and activation procedure is accomplished by entering keystroke commands to the IRD which are communicated to the descrambler via the internal microprocessor bus. It is not difficult for an operator to manually initialize and activate a PPV program event because the operators is prompted on the TV screen by the descrambler as to what entries are required at each moment.
As with other program events which are not scrambled, operators desire the ability to preprogram their IRD to receive pay-per-view programs in their absence, therefore, there is a need to automate the PPV program initialization and activation procedure so that it may be accomplished without the operator being present to actuate keystroke commands to the descrambler and IRD. The solution to automating the PPV initialization and activation procedure is complicated by the different initialization and activation procedures required by different PPV programming service providers and by the different access periods during which an initialization and activation procedure is attempted.
The manual initialization and activation of the PPV descrambling function in IRD satellite broadcast receivers has placed certain limits on the ability of operators to record program events which are purchased on a pay-per-view basis. Although pay-per-view program events can be recorded at the present time for viewing at a future time by manually initializing and activating the IRD satellite receiver pay-per-view function and activating the VCR record function, operators have a need to automate the recording of pay-per-view programs. Such automation would allow the operator to program the IRD to facilitate recording a program event at a future point in time for viewing at a point in time still further in the future.